We are pleased to be able to offer you this premium Sumatra Mandheling, which is Organic, Fair Trade, and Rain Forest Alliance Certified. Sumatra Mandheling has been a top-rated coffee for generations of coffee aficionados. Grown in Indonesia, Sumatra Mandheling coffee has one of the most recognizable and distinct cup characteristics of all single-origin coffees. Coffee experts would agree that its earthy, pungent, and deep character results less from the botanical variety of the beans or the area where it is grown than from the unique method of processing the beans.

To start, Sumatra coffee is always processed both wet and dry, unlike most other coffees that are processed either dry or wet. In wet processing, the pulp is removed from the coffee cherry before the beans are dried. During the dry processing, the seeds are dried inside the fruit before the skin; pulp, parchment and a white film called silver skin are removed. Sumatra coffee, which is almost universally grown by small farms, combines both processing methods. First, the pulp is removed at the farm, but the parchment and silver skin are left on. Then the coffee is dried in stages before the remaining layers are finally removed.

Sumatra Mandheling coffee is one of the common four types of Sumatra coffee. While most coffee is named after the growing region, or the country, Mandheling coffee is named after the Mandheling people that traditionally farmed and processed the coffee beans. A WWII Japanese military man stationed in Sumatra is said to have asked a local Sumatran where his coffee originated, but the Sumatran man mistakenly thought he was being asked about his ethnicity and replied "Mandheling". Later, word spread to Japan, and then the name stuck as merchants began inquiring about the purchase of Mandheling coffee from Sumatra. Mandheling is produced in Pandang, a small island that is part of Indonesia, close to the Sumatra coffee district, where 65% of the coffee is grown. Coffee trees were bought to the island in the early 19th century in an attempt to break the near monopoly on coffee beans from other parts of the world. Mandheling KOP Sumatra coffee is grown in altitudes of 2,500 to 5,000 feet. This shade-grown Mandheling has low acidity, bold highlights of a chocolate and caramel taste and an earthy finish.